In Europe, we won’t be getting Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 for the time being. With these Apple Intelligence alternatives, you can build your own version.
Apple Intelligence alternatives: how to make your iPhone smarter
The iPhone 16 is, according to Apple, the first iPhone that is completely made for Apple Intelligence, but in Europe we have no use for that for the time being. Due to strict EU legislation, Apple chooses to roll out an alternative version of iOS 18 here without Apple’s generative artificial intelligence.
Fortunately, you can also build your own Apple Intelligence, via various AI tools that are available for your iPhone. You don’t even need an iPhone 16 for that. With these Apple Intelligence alternatives, the artificial intelligence is not integrated as smoothly, but with a little effort you can still do a lot with it.
Better Conversations with Siri: ChatGPT
With Apple Intelligence, Siri has been improved to better understand you. If you’re looking for a smart AI conversation partner on your iPhone, ChatGPT is the place to go. The app recently added a conversation mode, and it works really well. Tap the headphone icon in the ChatGPT app and you can have a conversation just like you would with a human. Talk about the project you’re working on, ask for advice, or think of something else.
Removing Objects from a Photo: Photomator
Apple comes with the ability to erase objects from a photo, but not here. The team behind the nice macOS app Pixelmator offers an alternative in the form of iOS app Photomator. This app offers all kinds of nice functions to edit your photos, such as the ability to remove objects. Note that this is not a free app. You can use the app for free for a week, but after that you pay 34.99 euros per year.
Smarter Email: Canary Mail
Apple Intelligence helps you work with your email in a smarter way. You can compose emails, summarize your messages, and see the most important emails first, among other things.
If you want something similar on your iPhone without waiting for Apple Intelligence, you can give Canary Mail a try. This app also puts your most important emails at the top and helps you compose your emails. This mail app also has a focus on privacy, including end-to-end encryption on all your emails.
The biggest disadvantage of Canary Mail is that you need a subscription. You can use the app for free, but the possibilities are very limited. For example, to be able to write and summarize emails, you need Canary Mail Pro for 20 dollars per year.
Search your calendar, write texts and create images: Copilot
Copilot is a free app from Microsoft, which uses ChatGPT for texts and DALL-E for taking pictures. You can use the camera to ask things about your environment. If you work regularly with Microsoft 365, Copilot is an interesting tool to work with. Just like Apple Intelligence, you can also ask things about your calendar.
Visual Intelligence: Google Lens
With Visual Intelligence, it is possible to use your iPhone’s camera to gain information about your surroundings. For example, you can ask what breed a dog is, or see what the opening hours of a restaurant are.
You can do similar things with Google Lens. To do this, download the Google app (which you also use to search) and tap the camera icon in the search bar.
Genmoji: Emoji Kitchen
While the possibilities aren’t as endless as with Genmoji, where you can create any kind of emoji with a text command, the Emoji Kitchen from Google already a long way. With this tool you can combine all emoji to get a new result.
Use action button
Also, don’t forget that with an iPhone 16, you can choose to link the above features to the action button via the Shortcuts app. This way, such an AI feature feels more like part of the iPhone.
Side note: Apple Intelligence’s privacy
Of course, Apple is known for taking user privacy very seriously in its products. You’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 for the technology, as Apple Intelligence runs locally, meaning all your interactions will remain on your iPhone. If you use the apps mentioned in this article, your privacy will be less of a given. So pay close attention.
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